CARE Knows How to Prevent Gender-based Violence with Beads

CARE Knows How to Prevent Gender-based Violence with Beads

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The “bead game” was designed to address some of the pressure women in certain cultures feel to give birth to boy children, and reduce the stigma placed upon women who give birth to girls.

With the help of two colored beads representing the X and Y chromosomes, the game demonstrated how the sex of a child is determined.

The key point, that it is a chromosome from the man that determines the sex of the child, was overwhelmingly popular with the women, who said they were often blamed by their husbands or families if they did not produce a baby boy.

These domestic and cultural misunderstandings often result in gender-based violence, a problem CARE is committed to ending through community outreach, education and simple activities like the bead game.